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President Obama Speaks With WJZ About The So-Called ‘Doomsday Deadline’

WASHINGTON (WJZ) — In just two weeks, far-reaching budget cuts known as the sequester are set to take effect. It could cause massive job cuts and changes to services we count on.

In an effort to make his case to the American people, President Obama is taking to the airwaves.

Vic Carter asked the president about the so-called “Doomsday Deadline.”

At the White House, the news cycle has been dominated by talks about sequestration and those looming budget cuts that could affect the nation’s biggest agencies.

At the White House Wednesday, the president and senior of staff continued to warn Congress that–if action is not taken–the country is in danger of having to furlough thousands of government employees. The president says the ball is clearly in Congress’ court, with Marylanders’ jobs and services hanging in the balance.

“Well, what I say to them is that there’s no reason they should be furloughed, there’s no reason they should lose their jobs or be laid off. This is a problem that Congress can solve,” President Obama said.

“These automatic spending cuts that were put into place back in 2011 were designed to get Congress to actually avoid them, by coming together with more sensible approaches to deficit reduction,” he continued.

The president says this will likely be a close one, just like the fiscal cliff.

“I don’t know why it is in this town, folks leave stuff ’til the last minute,” he said. “There’s no other profession, no other industry where people wait until the 11th hour to solve these big problems. And obviously it creates a lot of uncertainty in our economy.”

If those cuts go through, more than 12,000 people could lose their jobs in the state of Maryland alone. Education could lose about $55 million in funding for next year.

Vic CarterFor 30 years, Vic Carter has approached his job with this philosophy: if the story is important enough to tell, it’s important enough for him to go...More fromVic Carter